# The "kids these days" fallacy **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 24, 2014, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060 "2014-02-24T02:34:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/41 "2014-02-25T20:45:22Z")
I’m '67 and I did start my working life not “online” but I don’t even remember how that worked. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/42 "2014-02-25T21:48:04Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Pull your goddamn pants up. “You shouldn’t be looking!” :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2014, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/43 "2014-02-25T22:21:44Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > So what? You’re drawing lines like there is a quantum leap from one side of the line to the other. It’s like saying I’m heaps older than you because I was born on 31 December and you were born the following year on 1 January. Just because someone made up some names and drew some arbitrary lines doesn’t mean anything much. I agree with this but think a case can be made for events defining a generation. WW2, Kennedy Assassination, Vietnam, Moon Landing, 9/11, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/44 "2014-02-26T01:01:44Z")
Unfortunately for kids today they don’t have such music as [Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=733lnFy9w-c). [And this!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKUBTX9kKEo) ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/45 "2014-02-26T02:18:11Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > It’s not a fallacy. Kids have been steadily declining for 2400 years. Greek kids weren’t taking selfies and listening to dubstep, afterall. Imagine what kids will be up to in 4400. “Stay away from jazz and liquor, and the men who play for fun.” Just think, in 80 years, dubstep will be considered old-fashioned, nostalgic, whimsical music that grandpa listened to when he was in middle school. ---
**Author:** ![Draq0nfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Draq0nfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draq0nfly)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/46 "2014-02-26T02:21:49Z")
Humans are humans, and forever shall remain arrogant about their own beliefs. I think this feeling comes from a common bond with a certain people. They draw on other people’s similarities, and become opinionated on it. Here’s a biased scenario: (just trying to haul my point across, I mean nothing negative by it) Assume during a specific time period, let’s say the renaissance, people grew up with a specific kind of music- and generally everyone favored it. Now let’s say that their grand children are listening to Justin Bieber. I doubt the grandparents in this scenario would favor this music, maybe even just for the fact they were holding their own musical muse to height. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/47 "2014-02-26T10:33:04Z")
> [@Lukeinva](#): > > Unfortunately for kids today they don’t have such music as [Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=733lnFy9w-c). > > [And this!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKUBTX9kKEo) They have their own excellent music. I’m 46 and I come across stuff produced right now that is superb. 'Course it’s mostly produced by people my age or older 😉 ---
**Author:** ![yarblek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/71e660/32.png) [@yarblek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yarblek)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/48 "2014-02-26T12:37:00Z")
I think the general term for this phenomenon is what sociologist call the generation gap. This is the result of social, philosophical, ethical and technological changes or developments in society which make new generations act and behave differently then the previous ones. Another aspect is the need for the new generations to from social and personal identities distinct from the parents. During the 20th (and 21st) century these changes have probably been much more rapid than in previous ones and therefore the generational differences for most of the people born during that time are probably greater than they generally have been in human history. ---
**Author:** ![yarblek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/71e660/32.png) [@yarblek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yarblek)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/49 "2014-02-26T12:43:15Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > The “kids these days” thing is pretty easy to understand. When you’re an adult you have different priorities and values. > > If you’re a kid playing football in the street, you’re just having fun with your mates and any grown-ups who complain are pathetic killjoys. If you’re an adult and there are kids playing football in your street, you are getting annoyed by the noise (which sounds much worse if you’re inside trying to do something else than if you’re outside being part of the noise), you are worried about your car getting dented or scratched, or your garden getting trampled, or a window getting smashed, or… > > I know this from first-hand experience. I live in the same house I lived in as a child, having bought it from my parents. I get pissed off with the kids playing outside in the very same street that I played in when I was their age. I remember the walk of shame to knock on doors to retrieve a ball that had gone over the fence, and now I’m the grouchy grown-up telling the kids to be more careful, or go and play somewhere else, and “If it comes over again you’re not having it back!” 😛 I don’t think this qualifies as an example of “kids _these_ days” but rather just kids in general since in your example there is no difference between you as a kid and the kids today. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2014, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060/50 "2014-02-26T13:31:47Z")
> [@yarblek](#): > > I don’t think this qualifies as an example of “kids _these_ days” but rather just kids in general since in your example there is no difference between you as a kid and the kids today. Yes - isn’t that exactly what this thread is about? Why there is this perception that kids are getting worse when in fact they are the same as ever? My perception as an adult is that kids are annoying now, whereas when I was a kid I was blissfully innocent of the fact that I was being annoying, and it was only stuck-in-the mud old grumps who would complain. And yes, if I stop and analyse it, I can see that this is a fallacy, but most people don’t stop to analyse, they just complain. Hence “kids these days”… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kids-these-days-fallacy/682060.md?page=2)